Invest Here, Sensitive Soul

A while back, Joseph Hutchison posted this poem on his blog:

To Writing Programs: A Canticle

This way, that way, that way, this,

Here and there a fresh love is.

—Robert Herrick,

"To Bacchus, A Canticle"

for Seth Abramson

Realize the greatness

of your voice. Inspiration

comes in many forms.

Discover the writer's life

in New York City.

(You're not in Iowa

anymore.) Write

in Miami! Write

from the Heartland.

(We'll let our reputation

speak for us.) Write

from the heart

of writing. (The world's

focus is on our faculty.) My

words, my time, my MFA.

Otis emphasizes the writer's

ability to articulate

innovation. What makes

us different? Expect

more. Big thinking

for a big world.

Finally—an MFA

that trains you

for a career, not just

a genre. Study

your way. (Scribbling on

the ether.) Achievement!

Change the world

with words.

________________________

[1] The Voices Summer Writing Workshop

[2] NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies

[3] The New School

[4] Emerson College

[5] Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College

[6] Ashland University

[7] Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers

[8] Lesley University

[9] Drew—The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies

[10] University of Nebraska at Omaha

[11] Otis College of Art and Design

[12] Pine Manor College Low-Residency MFA

[13] Queens University of Charlotte

[14] Chatham University

[15] Western Connecticut State University

[16] Burlington College

[17] Prague Summer Program of Western Michigan University

[18] The Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University

[19] Antioch University Los Angeles

Pretty funny, I think, and thoroughly nauseating.

Like everything else in America, poetry has become a racket. It promises you much more, deep meaning, fame and an oblique sex appeal, perhaps, than it can deliver. Get a loan--quick, before the bank shuts down altogether!--go into debt and in return you will be taken seriously by (mostly moonlighting) poets the rest of society doesn't give a caesura about--except during Poetry Month, of course. Just pay your tuition on time and at the end of the tunnel, you will have a comfortable, middle class career coated with a bit of bohemian juju, or so the student is led to believe. If everything goes well, you can encourage the next generation to stumble down this same path.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against young people wanting to learn about poetry or poetry writing. Those are beautiful yearnings, to be encouraged, but the system as it's set up demands a careerist mentality from both purveyors and suckers. Like every other ponzi scheme, it must entice its customers, the students, so that they don't shop at the next stall. This, it does mostly by flattery, since the poet's ego is always vulnerable and eager to vibrate. Poebiz must present its models, the professors, as somehow significant and relevant, though they may be nothing but careerist creeps. Oh shit, has the mike been on all this time?!

The mike is on?!

OK, all I mean to say is that the academy is fine and neccessary but it’s not good when nearly all of our poets are walled inside it. The academy is a utopia because that’s where our most untainted, optimistic and beautiful gather, and I’m only talking about the students, of course. Poets shouldn’t loiter in paradise. Paying through his nose, a young person drops into utopia, does a few hits of acid then leaves, but you can’t get rid of a tenured rhymeister with a crowbar, even if he hasn’t written anything in decades, if ever.